Hezbollah launches rocket barrage at Israeli positions

Beirut, Lebanon — AFP

Lebanon’s pro-Palestine resistance group Hezbollah says it launched on Thursday “more than 60” rockets at Israeli military positions in retaliation for overnight air strikes on the country’s east.

Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the October 7 launch of Israel’s unprecedented military assault on Gaza, now in its eighth month.

Hezbollah fighters “launched a missile attack with more than 60 Katyusha rockets” on several Israeli military positions in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the group said in a statement.

The strikes were “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks last night on the Bekaa region” in eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek area, the group added.

The Israeli army later said it had identified “approximately 40 launches” from Lebanon “towards the Golan Heights”, causing “no injuries”.

It added that Israeli forces struck the sources of the fire.

Earlier Thursday, Lebanese state-run media reported an overnight Israeli air raid on the Baalbek area, hours after the group launched an attack deep into Israeli territory.

“The outskirts of the eastern Lebanon mountain range, at midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday), was subjected to five enemy raids,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.

The Israeli strikes injured citizens and caused fires, the NNA added.

A source close to Hezbollah said that one of the strikes “hit a Hezbollah military camp”.

The group said Israeli fire had killed its member Hussein Makki, who was identified as a field commander by a source close to Hezbollah.

The cross-border fighting has killed at least 413 people in Lebanon, many of them civilians.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in areas on both sides of the border.

Israel captured much of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.